


Stubborn Love

by karrenia_rune



Category: Anthropomorfic, Playing Cards - Fandom
Genre: Anthropomorphic, affairs of the heart, duels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 07:10:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4512666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What really happened to cause the Jack of Hearts to lose his left eye; from the perspective of the Eight of Hearts, an incident which took place in Paris in 1595.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stubborn Love

Stop me if you've heard this one before; how the Jack of Hearts stole some tarts all on a summer day and then how action begets action and how he got punished for his crime. You think you know how the story ends. Well, I'll tell you right now that's not how it happened at all.

I won't bog you down with the details of the four suits, however, we may share the world of the court. 

We were always a contentious lot; bickering over such things as precedence and who held the better parties, balls and the like. Why it should matter so much, you might ask, I do not know. The debates raged on, and perhaps still do, but after a while, it has begun to merge into a big gray blur. I sit and drink some wine, white, I think, for some reason, I preferred my wine white instead of red. A quirk of my own personality, and ask you to imbibe if you will? No? Then all the more for me.

The story I am about to relate occurred around 1595 and concerned a lady by the name of Mademoiselle Mantieon who had been hosting a party in her salon in Paris. 

This would not have been considered completely gauche if not for the fact that lady in question was already engaged to be married. And of course, as luck would have it, the lady's suitor would have to walk in on the pair and challenge the young Jack of Hearts to a duel.

These occurred more frequently than you might suppose and were conducted with a set of observed rules of place, time and precedence; and as a veteran observer of many of them, I, as a matter of course, had to accompany my master, provide and clean his equipment, and if matters went awry for him; clean up after him.

Normally, the French authorities would frown on members of the nobility engaging in such things, but this being Paris and this concerning a matter of honor and a lady's reputation, of course, they would duel. It was almost a foregone conclusion.

And so they settled on a place and time for the duel. At noon in back of an old 13th-century fort and choose their seconds, a couple of eights from a non-aligned suit. The suits, hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, made of the bulk of the court. We normally would not have much of saying when it came to duels, but I think they wanted to be as proper as possible in this matter. I could not blame them for that. I doubt that either of the two men involved would have wished to bring dishonor down among their respective families or attract the attention of the authorities. 

I realize that as only an eight and a member of the black suit I should remain an impartial and objective observer, but I could not help but feeling sorry for the poor lad. 

The Jack of Hearts was young, handsome, and charming, but if somewhat inexperienced in dueling, if not in matters of wooing and winning members of the fairer sex. His opponent the Jack of Diamonds, was older, more experienced and a veteran fencer.

The Jack of Diamonds, let it be said, was older, stouter, and balding, but he was still a very good fighter.

The duel began and the afternoon spring air rang with the counterpoint of steel blade on the steel blade. Lunge and riposte, lunge and riposte, but as the fight went on; how long I could not have said because I was now caught up in it; perhaps I had underestimated the Jack of Hearts, for his foolish if passionate heart had been taken in by more than one beauty and had had that passion returned.

Ah, love, it is fickle, it is a fine thing, heady and wonderful, but it can also turn on one without warning. How well, I knew that feeling. But, I digress. 

The Jack of Diamonds darted into and beneath the Jack of Hearts guard and with a twist of his wrist the business end of-of his blade cut across his opponent's left eye, causing a gout of red life's blood to come out. His hands lost their grip on the hilt of his sword and came up to cover his face. If his second, a ten with a modicum of medical training had not acted as quickly the lad might have very well lost his life then and there.

Pale to begin with the loss of blood made him even paler, perhaps I too had once entertained some foolish notion of how dueling was a sport entertained among the nobility and upper-crust gentlemen; a mere game to settle affairs of the heart. If I had done so, that afternoon would have cured me of such notions.

Instead, he just lost his left eye. I had the Ten of Hearts carry our master out of there and to a nearby hospital. I suppose it was a good thing that the lady in question never found out what had become of her paramour. 

You could argue that it did mar his good looks in any particular way; or it simply made him more debonair and charming, even, dare I say, rakish. If one, went in for that sort of thing. Perhaps she moved on to other suitors, I could not say. 

As for me, I think I shall avoid duels for the foreseeable future; they are a messy business and stick to soirees and balls and learned discussions that take place in the salons of fancy ladies; much less fraught with threats to life and limb.

**Author's Note:**

> "Behold four Kings in majesty garbed, and for Four Queens holding a flower with hands folded over their laps. Four Knaves with caps on their heads and halberds in their hands." Canto III (The Rape of the Lock)
> 
> The title comes from the song by the Lumineers.


End file.
